


Defying the Odds

by Tarlan



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator Salvation (2009)
Genre: Angst, Community: smallfandomfest, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 20:08:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marcus had been granted the second chance that Serena Kogan had promised when he awoke to a post-apocalyptic world. He never expected to be given a third chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defying the Odds

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SmallFandomFest FEST13 - 2013  
> Also meets: Trope_Bingo Round Two: immortality / reincarnation

Marcus closed his eyes as he felt the instruments sink into his chest cavity, slowly pulling apart the cage of metal surrounding his beating, human heart. It felt as if he had come full circle, back to the execution chamber but this time the only sedative was his acceptance of his fate.

This was the right thing to do. This was the second chance that he never believed he would have, let alone deserved. It was the chance Doctor Kogan had promised him, though he wondered now if she had died of cancer without realizing the enormity of her research and how it would almost destroy humanity - and yet also provide a way to save it too through him. In the few times they had spoken, he had seen in her a compassion and a desire to help people through the use of technology, while all too aware of her own mortality.

He wondered how many of the scientists involved in Skynet truly believed they were creating a better world for humanity before it all turned to bleached bones and ash.

When he made the connection at San Francisco, his brain had synced with Skynet, and for every memory drawn from the moment of his rebirth into this desolate world to that second in the control room, he had gained far more from Skynet. His brain was overloading with data and images - both past and present. Blueprints, battle plans, and a computer's equivalent of stored memory. Through the eyes of Terminators and Hunter-Killers, he had seen billions of humans wiped from the face of the planet, and thousands more of the survivors herded like cattle into the processing plants to be used for experimentation, or simply harvested for their skin for Skynet's earlier prototypes into a cyborg like himself.

They had saved so few this day compared to the number of lives lost in this war raging against the machines.

He knew from Skynet's own memory banks that he truly was unique. Doctor Kogan had created him - one of series of experiments on donated bodies that had finally ended in success with him. He learned that her laboratory had been fire-bombed and the data lost while she hovered on the brink of death only days after her success, as if she had held on by a thread just to see her work completed, succumbing to the cancer riddled through her body without ever awakening or being able to take advantage of her research. The newspapers had blamed the bombing on a radical terrorist group led by a woman who had escaped from a mental institution - Sarah Connor.

It seemed fitting some how.

At his execution back in 2003, the sedative flowing into his veins had calmed him, followed by the drugs that sent him into unconsciousness before the lethal drug was introduced. It had felt like falling asleep, and he imagined that it was how an animal felt as it was humanely put down by a vet. This time he felt his body slowly shutting down like switching off a fan, with the blades slowing, losing momentum without a source of power - a beating heart - to fuel its rotation. He lost focus and his eyesight dimmed until the world faded to black.

He had expected that to be it. The end of Marcus Wright. So it confused him when he heard a familiar voice calling his name, and saw bright light as he tried to open heavy eyelids.

"Marcus. Come on. Open your eyes."

Marcus tried to move his hand but it felt either too heavy or maybe restrained. Definitely restrained, he thought as he felt the bite of metal against the skin-covered metal of his arm. He forced open his eyes and stared up into the face that belonged to that familiar voice.

"Connor."

His voice felt scratchy from disuse and an inner thought almost had him sniggering as he wondered whether he needed a lube job. Something must have shown on his face as Connor's face seemed to lose a little of its tension, with a smile threatening at the corners of his mouth, lips twitching.

"Marcus."

"I don't understand." Marcus glanced around, seeing evidence of a long disused laboratory around him.

"We found you a new heart. Brought you back."

Marcus looked down at the restraints holding him tightly bound to the table, recognizing the high tensile metal that Connor had used on those eel-like terminators. He glanced back up at Connor and saw no regret in his eyes.

"We needed to make sure when you... rebooted... you didn't revert to any Skynet protocols for an infiltration terminator."

Marcus nodded because that made sense. He had connected to Skynet and downloaded one hell of a lot of data. He might have ripped out the cortex chip, or whatever Connor had called it, from the back of his neck to stop Skynet controlling him at that time, but the data was already in his head by then. If he had rebooted like a machine, then there was always the possibility that Skynet's programming would override his memories of being human. He blinked in surprise when Connor released him without making any further checks, taking time to really look at Connor.

The scar on his face had faded to a silvery line, and he looked older somehow. Or worn down by the constant battle to survive. Marcus couldn't be certain which but he had a suspicion that it was the former. Time had passed, perhaps years if he went by the lines on Connor's face.

"The others? Blair... Kyle... Star?"

Connor shook his head. "Except for Star. All gone. Even Kate." He huffed derisively. "Proof that the future's not set. That it can be changed." His eyes looked old and dulled with painful memories. "I was supposed to die. Not Kate. She was supposed to be the one who programmed the T-850 in 2032 after it killed me... not the other way around."

"What year is it now?"

"2030."

Twelve years would account for the changes in Connor, and for the loss of Kyle. From Skynet he had learned of Kyle's importance, and he knew Connor would have sent Kyle 45 years into the past to protect his mother - and to become John's father.

"And the war?"

"Skynet has created a network of satellites orbiting the planet. We have one shot at destroying it before it is completed by taking out Skynet itself."

"And if we don't?"

"Then it's all over, and the machines win." Connor reached out and touched Marcus's arm, strong fingers digging into flesh covering a metal endoskeleton. "We need you." He swallowed. "I need you."

"Okay. So what's the plan?"

****

It took far fewer days to formulate a plan than expected, mainly because Marcus discovered that what they really needed was all the information stored inside his head. He knew Skynet's weaknesses, knew schematics for places no human had ever ventured and returned alive. He knew entrances and exits, gun tower placements. He knew algorithms that would assist a hacker in breaking codes much faster, buying them precious time.

The night before the mission, Connor ordered everyone involved to take some downtime. He wanted them to be with those they loved, or simply have fun or find a measure of peace in case they did not live to see the day after tomorrow. For his own part, Marcus watched as Connor hugged his daughter tight and sat with her, watching her sleep until late into the evening.

With Star leading one of the other resistance cells, Marcus had no one left to care about him, so he found a quiet place well away from the others to sit and think about the past, present and future. He was surprised when Connor joined him, sliding down the long, disused sewer wall to sit beside him. Marcus could feel the heat from Connor's body where they touched from knee to shoulder.

"I know you can feel pain... but can you also feel pleasure?"

Marcus thought about that, recalling the excruciating pain from the land mine that would have torn off his foot had it been human rather than machine. His connection with Skynet had shown him how to switch off the pain/pleasure receptors when in battle mode. He switched them on now.

"Yes."

The warm hand that turned his face was not unexpected. Nor were the soft lips that pressed lightly against his. Fear of losing control, or holding too tight, crushing fragile human bone, kept him passive. His hands skimmed over whatever part of Connor he could reach as they both pushed aside ragged clothing to reach the warm flesh beneath. He let Connor press him to the ground, welcoming the weight of Connor's body covering him as pants were shoved down without ceremony, leaving no physical barrier between their close-pressed bodies. He gasped as Connor... as John rocked against him, feeling the hard cock slide against his abdomen in the slickness of precome, and nudging against his own erection.

It felt good. Exquisite. With the sensations building slowing, teasing through him and setting his body on fire with need. It was his last request finally granted after being denied while he waited on death row before the world ended. It was so much better than the single kiss that he'd demanded from Serena Kogan before signing away his corpse for her research.

He muted his cries by pulling John's mouth to his, kissing him deeply, frantically, as his body overloaded, wanting to crush John against him and hold him there forever, yet remaining aware enough not to hold too tight to the fragile true human. John's answering cries were muffled in turn, though he felt the warmth of his release against his belly, smearing between them.

Afterwards they lay together in silence on the dirty ground, letting fingertips trail over sensitive skin - feeling echoes of passion spent. He gently kissed John, feeling the answering pressure of lips moving against his own, all too aware that the world would encroach on them soon enough, shattering this moment of peace.

Silently, Marcus made a promise that if they could defy the odds and survive this last battle, then he'd find this moment of peace again - but only with John.

END


End file.
